Stakeholder Engagement: An Expertise-Centred Approach

With the popularisation of empirically calibrated models and the increasing interest in making computer simulation more useful and impactful, engaging with stakeholders has progressively become an attractive alternative during the modelling process in agent-based social simulation. A common justification for involving stakeholders is that they contribute expert knowledge. While common, the text argues, this justification is somewhat misleading, for it is informed by an account of expertise primarily centred on subject-matter competence and superior performance. This article, thus, takes an expertise-centred approach to analyse more broadly what makes the involvement of stakeholders warranted and how their expertise can be better incorporated into the modelling process. The analysis suggests that the current conceptualisation of stakeholder engagement in agent-based social simulation could greatly benefit from further clarifying: (i) the multiple sources and contents of stakeholder expertise, (ii) the role that computational models play in the retrieval and enactment of expertise, and (iii) the impact of recognition and attribution of expertise on the modelling process.